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Gundemonium and GundeadliGne review

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Author Topic: Gundemonium and GundeadliGne review  (Read 128 times)
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« on: July 02, 2013, 05:48:58 pm »

I'm reviewing both of these games because they are a part of a trilogy bundle, and the third game plays COMPLETELY differently from the other two. I also haven't really gotten the hang of the third game, so I'm not gonna review it without at least having a basic idea of what I'm talking about.



Gudenomium Recollection (first game in the series)


Gundemonium Recollection is a unique 2d bullet hell shooter that feels like no other. While it has huge bullet storms and a pixel sized hitbox to dodge them with (like most bullet hell shooters), it also has more of an emphasis on simpler but fast attacks that come from all angles and make the game feel more visceral and oldschool.

The games level design is manic, never content to do the same thing for too long, and constantly switches up the challenges it throws at you. It continuously throws enemy storms, gimmicky hazards, and quickly dispatched minibosses at you, and then withdraws them and switches to something else just as your getting used to it. It feels like the developers had a lot of fun designing the stages, and I found them incredibly fun to play.

Recollection also mashes up a ton of systems and mechanics from other games. There's adaptive difficulty you can manipulate to your advantage (or screw up and get floored), a slow motion ability that is prolonged by your proximity to danger (a pretty neat mechanic, actually), scoring based on chaining kills, and tons of secrets in each stage. These don't really intefere with eachother, nor are they forced on you. So you can play the game how you want, utilizing these mechanics as you discover them to boost your performance.

The games scoring is pretty deep, and there's a second character you can customize based on weapon/bomb/magic, so the game has plenty of replayability (though imo, shmups always do).

My only complaint is that I wish it had an extra level (It's 5 stages, about the same length as most of Caves bullet hell shooters, but I've never liked the 5 stage format.) The fast paced nature of the game combined with the standard bullet hell shooter length can make an individual playthrough feel a bit over too soon (unless your playing on the hardest difficulty, in which case the end cannot come soon enough, ha ha).

I very much enjoy the game. It's fast paced, well designed, visceral, deep, you can play it in a variety of ways, and it feels like its overflowing with manic fun. Gundemonium Recollection, and its sequel GundeadliGne are two of the best bullet hell shooters I've ever played.



GundeadliGne (second game in the trilogy)



The sequel to Gundemonium Recollection. Pretty much everything I said in my recommendation for Recollection stays true here, so look up that first (I wish I could do a recommendation for the whole pack.)

GundeadliGne (pronounced GUN-DEAD-LINE) doesn't differentiate from its predecessor with many new mechanics. The only thing truly new is the ability to turn around and shoot behind you, which is a great addition and changes the way the levels are played quite a bit. It forces you to constantly be moving about and allows enemies to come from a greater variety of angles. It's a great game design choice and perfectly contributes to the "manic" feel of the game.

There's also an online co-op mode. But the netcode is a bit iffy. It's great fun, even though careful synchronization of your bomb usage allows you to completely break the game.

Other then the above, the main difference between this and Recollection is that this game is more "extreme". Scoring is now several digits higher and faster, the difficulty is much more brutal, and most of all, the adaptive difficulty in this game ("Rank" as it's often called by shmup fans, though the games name for it is "phase level") is now actively trying to crush you.

Recollection had "rank management" (shmup term for manipulating the adaptive difficulty with purposeful mistakes to make clearing the game more manageable), but it could still be played like a normal shmup for the most part, even on hard mode. GundeadliGne on the other hand will CRUSH you on hard or even normal if you don't pay attention to phase level. It is absolutely necessary to plan out your route carefully in order to avoid ratcheting the difficulty up. Though thankfully, like any good rank management shmup, there are a variety of ways to play through the game, and finding your own style is a large part of the fun.

As a side effect of this, the hardest difficulty (Demonic) which permanently sets phase level to maximum, is much, much, MUCH harder then the hardest difficulty on Recollection. Unless your using Nagi (who is op, as youtube videos have demonstrated).

Other then the difficulty, the game is also a bit more refined. There's less customization, but the three characters present are a lot more balanced and fleshed out. The level and boss design is pretty much just as good as Recollection, though the increased difficulty might put them above Recollection for some people.

Overall, I can recommend this just as much as Recollection. It's more intense and more crazy thanks to turning around and the escalation of scoring and difficulty, but also more memorization/trial and error focused with the rank management (unless you're pro). If that sounds like your cup of tea, you'll probably find yourself playing this more then Recollection.
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